Trenton City Council won't give more money to Marriott management

TRENTON — Representatives from the Waterford Hotel Group and the Lafayette Yard Community Development Corp. asked city council for a total of $295,000 Tuesday night to cover losses incurred at the downtown Marriott hotel.

It appears that council will not answer the group’s cash call.

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Both council and the business administrator have panned the downtown hotel, with City Business Administrator Sam Hutchinson referring to it as “an abysmal failure.”

“It has never been profitable,” Hutchinson said. “They may have broken even in only one or two years.

The hotel is slated to go by a different name as Marriott is ending its contract with the city in June. Waterford, the management company that oversees the hotel’s day-to-day operations, is also on its way out. The argument from Waterford and LYCDC chairman Cleve Christie was that the money would help ease the hotel’s transition to a new company. This did not sit well with council.

Council argued that Marriott, Waterford and LYCDC had acted in bad faith the last time they had asked for money. Last year, the groups received a cash call of $500,000 from the city. The deal was that they received $385,000 up front and the groups would receive the rest if the LYCDC chairman gave regular updates on the hotel to council. This did not happen and the money was never handed out, yet the hotel groups want that money.

“We wanted to find positive information to give,” Cleve Christie said regarding the lack of communication. “Council is inundated with enough negativity.”

“You’re supposed to give information that you have, not what you want to give,” Council president Phyllis Holly-Ward said.

Council also said Waterford and LYCDC did not do enough to market the hotel or make it profitable. When the Waterford representative was asked about the hotel’s marketing plan, he stumbled with a general response about Marriott as an overall company before stating “it’s pretty detailed.”

The comment drew audible laughter in council chambers.

“You haven’t shown us anything,” Councilman George Muschal said to Christie. “In 10 years, you’ve done nothing and you’re coming back asking for more money.”